Retail merchandise trays are typically used to contain retail merchandise in neat organized linear rows. Such trays may employ spring biased pushers to front face the merchandise, i.e. move the merchandise forward to a front of the tray, by applying a force to the back end of each row of merchandise. Other trays may forego the use of a pusher entirely, and rely on gravity for front facing. The latter style of tray is commonly referred to in the industry as a tray.
While such trays are advantageous, they are not without their drawbacks. First, such trays are typically designed as a stand-alone shelf. In other words, they are not designed to mate with an existing retail shelf. Instead, they require their own custom vertical mounting rack, with each tray mounted directly to the vertical mounting rack. A contemporary example of such a system may be readily seen at U.S. Pat. No. 8,490,800 to Noble Colin titled “Gravity Feed Display Rack,” the teachings and disclosure of which are incorporated in their entirety by reference herein. As such, one drawback is that such gravity feed systems are difficult to integrate with existing retail shelving.
Second, even where such trays are designed to operate with an existing retail shelf, they are relatively complex in their construction and typically require hand tools and the like in their assembly. An example of such a relatively complex system may be seen at U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0178156 to Knorring, J R. et al. titled “Method and Apparatus For Converting Gondola Shelf to Gravity Feed Shelf,” the teachings and disclosure of which are incorporated in their entirety by reference herein. Such systems often entail a high part count to effectuate installation to a shelf, as well as the use of relatively complex componentry such as rollers and the like. Further such systems often require the use of fasteners in their assembly which requires the use of additional tools and labor.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a retail merchandise tray and display incorporating the same which alleviates or eliminates the above drawbacks. The invention provides such a tray and display incorporating the same. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.